SDCC 09: The Cleveland Show Hits Comic-Con

As our Comic-Con coverage continues to roll out, we caught up with the highly-anticipated panel for a little TV program called The Cleveland Show.

For a show that has yet to air, or show much about itself to fans up until now, the Family Guy spinoff, Cleveland is already very near and dear to our IGN hearts. And judging by the insanely packed house viewing the footage, it looks like we best make more care space for Cleveland's solo effort.

The panel kicked off with a packed house in Ballroom 20, as co-creators Seth MacFarlane, Mike Henry, and Rich Appel, and voice castmembers Sanaa Lathan and Kevin Michael Richardson introduced the second act from the pilot and a clip from an episode airing in December.

Click above to watch our video interview with Seth MacFarlane

The first clip introduced us to the show's principal cast: Cleveland, fresh from his divorce, packs up the van with an older, tubbier version of Cleveland, Jr. (and no, the writers don't plan to explain Junior's sudden girth spurt) and heads back to the town Cleveland grew up in. There, he re-connects with his high-school crush, Donna (voiced by Latham), who is also a recent divorcee.

Before Cleveland can get his heavy petting on with Donna, he has to play dad to her two kids: Rollo, The Cleveland Show's very young, very over-sexed version of Stewie, and Roberta, a teenager who has curfew issues and an Oreo wannabe gangsta by the name of, wait for it, Federline Jones (voiced by Jamie Kennedy doing his Malibu Most Wanted schtick. Not that we should ever reference Malibu again, but...).

Highlights from the first clip are:

Cleveland sneaks up on Roberta in Federline's car, punches out the driver's side window and insists that Fed bring Robert back not a minute earlier than her 10pm curfew, as Cleveland doesn't want his chance to make a move on a MILF to be interrupted.

Rollo has a thing for crawling under the arts and crafts table at school for a unique vantage point of his classmates' skirts. Cleveland, still playing surrogate dad, advises Rollo to do so but to have a safety reason for being under the table, like dropping your pencil and having to retrieve it. Rollo emerges from his next trip under the table sporting a "golf pencil in his pants".

Click above to watch our video interview with series star Mike Henry

The second clip featured Cleveland, Jr. pledging his virginity to his father. In an effort to change his boy's mind about saving himself from the touch of a woman, Cleveland takes Junior on a detour to Comic-Con, and shows him the hall of virgin geeks his son risks becoming should he never get it on. (The Ballroom 20 crowd erupted with laughter, drowning out most of the clip's dialogue but you got the gist...)